10,000 Students, One Mission: Constructing Empathy By Journey

This sponsored content material was created in collaboration with a Skift associate.

It begins with a bus pulling right into a rural village within the mountains of the Dominican Republic. Dozens of households are already gathered, ready eagerly to satisfy the visiting highschool college students they’ve been paired with. For someday, college students reside as locals — fetching water, cooking meals, enjoying with kids — forming bonds that transcend language and tradition. It’s these deeply human moments, crafted via belief and long-term neighborhood relationships, that outline the Global Glimpse expertise.

Since 2008, the non-profit has empowered highschool college students from numerous backgrounds to discover new cultures, problem their assumptions, and construct lasting connections that transcend borders. Over time, the affect has been clear. Ninety-six percent of alumni say they will higher empathize with individuals from completely different cultural backgrounds after taking part in this system.

Now, as Global Glimpse prepares to welcome its 10,000th scholar, SkiftX sat down with founding CEO Eliza Pesuit to discover the group’s origins, its community-driven method, and what’s subsequent, together with a daring imaginative and prescient for increasing into customized, purpose-driven journeys for adults and professionals.

SkiftX: Why do you imagine journey is such a robust type of schooling?

Eliza Pesuit: It’s deeply private for me. I didn’t journey rising up, however due to my Serbian dad and Russian mother, I had a world upbringing. After my freshman 12 months in school, I bought a job cleansing tents in Yosemite National Park and met individuals from all around the world. That summer time modified all the things. I ended up shopping for a one-way ticket to Peru and spent six months touring solo via South America.

What struck me most was how conscious I turned of worldwide inequality and privilege. I bear in mind watching a younger woman with a child on her again and pondering, “What am I going to do with all the opportunity I’ve been given?” I used to be additionally keenly conscious of how few Americans I met overseas. We have this outsized world affect, and but so a lot of our leaders develop up with out a actual understanding of the world. That expertise confirmed me that journey is probably the most highly effective type of schooling. I can’t let you know what I discovered in any 12 months of highschool, however I bear in mind each second of that journey.

How did Global Glimpse come to be?

After I graduated from school, I returned to Nicaragua, the place I had studied overseas. I used to be planning on going to nursing college, however life had different plans once I got here throughout a job posting at a café looking for a bilingual chief to bridge U.S. and Latin American cultures and work with younger individuals. I took the leap.

At 23, I stepped into a task that allowed me to assist construct and lead worldwide packages from the bottom up, with assist from early mentors who believed within the imaginative and prescient. We launched Global Glimpse in partnership with 10 low-income excessive colleges within the San Francisco Bay Area and despatched practically 100 college students to Nicaragua within the first 12 months. In these early years, Global Glimpse was a small and scrappy operation, and I did all the things, together with recruiting colleges and main delegations. In 2012, I started to professionalize the group and develop our footprint. That’s once we actually began to scale our mannequin and increase our affect.

What does reaching the ten,000th scholar milestone imply to you?

It’s surreal. I believe once you construct one thing from nothing, you see each step of the journey. There’s been battle, there’s been development, however on the middle of all of it are the younger individuals. They’re out on the earth doing wonderful issues due to this expertise. The ripple impact is huge — not only for them, however for his or her households, colleges, and communities. It provides me hope.

What makes the Global Glimpse mannequin distinctive?

We present a lot greater than journey. We have a grassroots community of champions throughout 100 public excessive colleges and youth growth organizations that assist guarantee entry for college students who wouldn’t in any other case have this chance. And we wrap our journeys with a strong pre- and post-travel curriculum. A number of teen journey packages are one-off experiences. What we do is create a longitudinal affect.

Our college students develop comfortable abilities like empathy, company, adaptability, and collaboration. They unplug for 2 weeks, are current with one another, and construct friendships with individuals they may by no means meet in any other case. In New York, as an illustration, now we have college students from the South Bronx touring alongside college students from Greenwich, Connecticut. That sort of range is uncommon and highly effective.

What are among the experiences that stick with college students probably the most?

One of probably the most transformative is our “Living Like a Local” day. Students spend time with a household in a rural neighborhood doing what they do — sweeping the patio, feeding animals, and connecting over a meal. Even with out talking the identical language, the human connection is profound. These households have typically welcomed tons of of scholars through the years. The love and belief that exists in these moments is unimaginable.

It’s not simply eye-opening — it’s grounding. Students come away humbled, impressed, and altered.

You’ve began exploring customized journeys for adults. What’s driving that enlargement?

Adults want this simply as a lot as younger individuals do. They’re burnt out, overstimulated, and craving connection and function. We ran our first customized Global Glimpse Journey for Somos, United Airlines’ business resource group for Latino employees, and the suggestions was unimaginable. One hundred p.c of members gave it a prime rating. People mentioned it was probably the most highly effective journey expertise they’d had in years.

I’ve seen this work firsthand throughout management journeys we run for donors and companions. Even in simply two days, the affect is actual. There’s an actual alternative to rethink how we method skilled retreats and workforce offsites. We wish to convey that magic to extra corporations and adults.

What do company companions get out of supporting your mission?

They get so much. It’s direct affect, but additionally deep worker engagement. Our packages encourage individuals throughout the org chart — from airport employees to C-suite executives. We supply tangible methods to become involved, from reviewing scholar functions to profession mentoring. For corporations in journey and hospitality, our work aligns completely with their model function.

And there’s the storytelling piece. Supporting our work isn’t simply writing a test — it’s an genuine, strategic funding in the way forward for journey.

How can others become involved or assist shut the empathy hole?

There are so some ways. Fund a scholar’s first flight. Volunteer to mentor. Sponsor a visit. We additionally not too long ago launched a Board of Champions made up of cross-sector leaders who wish to open doorways, supply insights, or just assist amplify our message. It doesn’t take a lot time to make a huge impact. We’re constructing a motion, and we welcome individuals to be a part of it.

What excites you most concerning the street forward?

I’m enthusiastic about innovating. Challenging moments power you to suppose in a different way. I wish to convey the Global Glimpse expertise to broader audiences and present the world how highly effective empathy-driven journey may be. I’m additionally impressed by our alumni. We now have practically 10,000 younger individuals who have been via our program. How can we assist them lead, give again, and form the way forward for journey and society? That’s the following chapter I’m excited to write down.

To be taught extra about impact-driven journey and the way your organization can be a part of the Global Glimpse motion, click here.

This content material was created collaboratively by Global Glimpse and Skift’s branded content material studio, SkiftX.